Microsoft Forms vs SurveyMonkey

Both of these are survey tools for people who are not researchers. One is already paid for and reports into Excel; the other costs real money and does the analysis itself.

The one you have against the one they recognise

Microsoft Forms comes with a Microsoft 365 subscription at no extra cost. If your organisation is on it, the tool is provisioned, governed and approved already, which for a lot of internal surveys ends the discussion before it starts.

SurveyMonkey's asset is on the other side of the form. Respondents recognise the format, which helps completion on a cold list — that matters when you are surveying customers who have no reason to finish. Its template library also covers most standard research instruments, so the questions are often better than the ones you would have written unaided.

SurveyMonkey scores 4 for looks against Microsoft Forms' 2, and 4 for logic against 3. Microsoft Forms scores 1 for customisation, the lowest of the two by a distance.

Reporting in Excel, or reporting in the product

Microsoft Forms syncs responses into Excel, where most organisations already do their reporting. That is genuinely useful and it means the analysis is yours to do.

SurveyMonkey's reporting and analysis are built in rather than an export away. For a team without a spreadsheet habit, that is the difference between having data and having an answer.

The money is not close. Microsoft Forms scores 4 for value on the assumption you hold the subscription; SurveyMonkey scores 2, its free tier limits the questions per survey rather than the replies collected, and paying monthly costs far more than the annual rate for a smaller allowance.

Neither accepts payments and neither does calculations across answers. Microsoft Forms scores 5 for ease and SurveyMonkey scores 5 as well, so neither is hard to start with.

Which should you choose?

Choose Microsoft Forms if the audience is internal and the reporting happens in Excel anyway — you are paying for it either way.

Choose SurveyMonkey if you are surveying customers rather than colleagues, and you want the analysis done in the product rather than by you afterwards. Price the annual plan rather than the monthly one before you decide.